Was the Model 78 ever designed to be a competitor to the Chinook? Pity it was never built.

The Navy issued contracts to both McDonnell and Sikorsky for this marine assault mission, designated HRH and HR2S respectively. McDonnell's contract was subsequently terminated. The resulting Sikorsky helicopter is better known as the H-37, its Army designation. As Mark noted, this program was almost a decade earlier than the Chinook.

The Super Hornet's F100 or the F135. With the F135 at least it would be "ready" for the future AETP engine.

Probably a brain-fart but the Super Hornet uses the F414, which in a non-afterburning configuration would be too small. However, the USN does have experience with the F110 in the F-14D, and the F118 (used in the B-2) is a non-afterburning version of that engine.

Yep - thx.

Thought about the F-14 but it's been over 10 years. That expertise is gone.

Not sure it has to lose the afterburner. The point is to make it as simple, logistically, as possible.

"Cahill said Lockheed is still in the process of reaching an agreement on what kind of capabilities, for example, an evolved THAAD interceptor could go after.The desire to add extended range at the back end and more advanced sensing capability on the front end of the missile could give THAAD the capability to take out more advanced threats like hypersonics because it could take out a particular threat “before it has the chance to do the things it’s designed to do to defeat you,” Cahill noted.

“I wouldn’t want to say specifically what [THAAD Extended Range] could do against particular threats yet because we are still working our way through that,” Cahill said, “but there is no doubt, in general, further down-range, higher-up capability gives you better ability to hit something in the right zones. The more envelope you’ve got, the more you can pick where you can go hit them.”

The White House Office of Management and Budget wants the Defense Department to give “special focus” to missile defense, hypersonic weapons, autonomous and space-based systems as well as other technologies when drawing up research and development investments for fiscal year 2019, according to a recent memo.